so I was brainstorming what sorts of creativeness I could try for next year’s Mission Day, if I wanted to try and help reclaim that for the fans

which is me being SUPER overzealous, because I only just found out about the existence of Mission Day yesterday

lol who am I to even get involved in this

(BUT who am I to do anything… and yet I still do.)

… For those who are just a few days more behind-the-times than me:

apparently, back in 2016, there was a line in a TRON game which said that May 14 was “Mission Day.” Some fans got excited that maybe something cool was gonna happen that day

akin to the Flynn Lives ARG starting in 2009 where fans were led on a whole fun adventure, following clues through a network of webpages (seriously, if you don’t know about THAT, take a look)

but no, this time it turned out nothing happened, and people were disappointed.

and when I heard about that, my own rebellious side went:

Who wants to do this with me?? Like a fanzine but more… interactive, multimedia

Maybe it’ll take a year, or more, but, like… what if some May 14 you start seeing fanfics posted on AO3 with mysterious clues in them, leading to a webring of Neocities sites all mysteriously connected in their own cryptic ways

Fanlore, fan-made stories, drawings, maybe even animations and games. Fan OCs getting their own place in all of it

Not beholden to whatever f’d up version of the Hays Code the mouse is currently following. So there’ll be all sorts of LGBT stuff, all colors of the rainbow and all colors of circuits….

aaaand THEN

then my brainstorms got tornado-strength and I came back to reality some unknown time later with a mess of crazy plans just for the STORIES that could start this scavenger hunt

(the websites are breeding their own plotbunnies and I will face that later)

(I am still not even slightly convinced that I will have the time or energy for ANY of this)

BUT… there is a whole year til next May 14

so….

just a whole disorganized pile of ideas, starting here

Multiverse

Hypothesis: the spiritual energy that makes programs alive is something that functions on many planes of existence, and can connect different realities.

Someone finds out a way to tap into this with the laser technology, enabling travel between different Tron worlds and different alternate timelines.

(Maybe the “miracle” of ISO DNA somehow ends up being relevant to this? Alan quoted Flynn saying this was supposed to revolutionize everything; he even mentioned quantum teleportation? seems like a powerful mcguffin that never got used, might as well use it)

Some Tron AUs that may connect here:

Post-MCP scenario where the originals of the programs that were copied for the Legacy Grid go on living happily in the ENCOM system (my main headcanon that I write in)

Other scenarios where the programs brought to the Grid were eliminated from the ENCOM system and there’s no original left behind

• Variations on 82, Legacy and Uprising:
• Different interpretations of how digitization works, how consciousness forms within the system, etc.

Post-Legacy extrapolations of Tron’s future on Flynn’s Grid

• Tronzler restored by Alan and Sam;
• Tronzler regenerated as an ISO by the Sea of Simulation;
• Tronzler regenerated into an eldritch horror by the Sea of Simulation;
• Tronzler dead;
• Tronzler emerging from the sea still broken and half-rectified
• etc

Other post-Legacy possibilities

• Clu survived in some form after the reintegration;
• Flynn survived in some form after the reintegration;
• Clu and Flynn both survived in some form after the reintegration;
• Clu and Flynn are one merged entity after the reintegration;
• Clu and Flynn are dead;
• Sam comes back again;
• Sam comes back and brings Alan and Lora and Roy;
• Sam never comes back and someone else has to try and make things work;
• Yori and Ram are still there;
• Yori and Ram are not there because they were never brought;
• Yori and Ram are not there because they were killed;
• Yori and Ram are still there but different because they were rectified;
• Zuse survived;
• Zuse survived and he turns out to be an amalgamation of an interpreter program hacked and taken over by Ram and he has an epic bitch session with Tronzler about their various struggles, betrayals, split personalities and changes of identity
• ETC.

Various post-Uprising and pre-Legacy possibilities:

• Beck and Paige eventually join forces and/or fall in love;
• Beck and Paige eventually kill each other;
• Mara and Zed find out who the Renegade is;
• Mara and Zed die or get rectified before they can ever find out who the Renegade is;
• Tron becomes Rinzler because he is later caught and rectified while Beck is forced to watch;
• Tron becomes Rinzler because the rectification process in the last episode managed to infect him before he was saved and he ends up suddenly turning bad at the worst possible time for Beck;
• Beck becomes Rinzler instead of Tron;
• Dyson somehow comes back;
• the Uprising team meets Zuse,
• etc

Various non-canon-compliant AUs in all these settings

• Ram didn’t die in 82;
• Ram did die and so did Flynn and then Tron defeated the MCP on his own;
• Tron tried to defeat the MCP on his own but failed and MCP was never beaten;
• MCP was beaten but Flynn died in there and died in real life;
• Flynn survived and got out and tried to build the Grid but Alan and Lora managed to stop him from ruining his life by trying to do that alone;
• Alan went into the Grid in Legacy instead of Sam;
• Tron never becomes Rinzler;
• Flynn or Ram becomes Rinzler instead of Tron;
• someone else becomes the tyrant instead of Clu;
• Able didn’t die
• etc, etc.

….anyway

imagining a scenario where various versions of characters from all these timelines connect via the Laser (Head)Cannon

(terrible working name, but it amuses my terrible sense of humor, so there)

….gonna re-read Ram: Expanded by kesomon because there’s a fic in there (Interlude- Reprieve) about a similar connected multiverse

https://archiveofourown.org/works/25366543

there are many stories one could tell within this.

But I think I want to tell one with the theme of rebellion, throwing off oppression, expressing freedom and autonomy

…

example for one storyline within it:

the “In Ram Jurisdiction” plotbunny

• After Ram is recovered and comes back to life in the Encom system, his original insurance company calls for his destruction.
• they have their own backup and don’t need the Encom copy returned, they just demand that Encom delete theirs.
• because he was stolen from them by MCP
• even though Roy wrote him at Encom, they bought exclusive rights to his code so they own him.
• Ram and Roy and their friends launch a legal battle.
• maybe upgrading Ram in the process so he can be considered a protected derivative work under Fair Use

…

also could take some inspiration from the brilliant fanfic “Anthem,” a reprise of the story of TRON 1982 for the world of DRM and musical copyright

https://archiveofourown.org/works/28223541

…because

…this theme of seeking freedom comes up in every iteration of Tron

and the feeling behind this whole over-ambitious idea here… is a celebration of the vast diversity of fan-created content

an overarching theme of wanting to claim this world for the fans– a theme of the copyright-holding corporation as Oppressor

Fan Mission Day
Fission Day

(day of splitting, separation, becoming independent)

TRONdependence Day